Lahore: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday directed the Punjab government to announce a 50% attendance policy for private offices amid worsening smog conditions in several cities.
The order came during a hearing related to smog in the High Court, during which the Judicial Water and Environment Commission also suggested closure of schools, however, the court did not agree to the proposal.
On the other hand, the LHC ordered the creation of a smog cell in the Pakistan Disaster Management Authority (PDMA).
The High Court also urged the authorities to issue a traffic plan to deal with the situation and directed the authorities to set up a traffic emergency call line.
“Any citizen should be able to complain of traffic jam on the call line,” Justice Shahid Karim said.
However, Punjab Environment Minister Mohammad Rizwan said that the government is not ordering the lockdown as the situation has not reached the ‘alarming’ level.
He said that the ongoing development works in the city also cause air pollution and we have ordered water cannons to control it.
The minister said the air pollution figures are released according to a formula and the information released 24 hours back is wrong.
He said that there are only two monitors in Lahore, the rest are bad.
‘Worst’ air quality
Lahore once again topped the air quality and pollution ranking index in the world on Thursday.
In what should be seen as a worrying sign for Pakistanis, Karachi is also ranked eighth in the same global index.
According to the Air Quality Index, the level of particulate matter has increased to 367 in Lahore, while it has reached 163 in Karachi.
India’s capital New Delhi has been placed second in the list as its special case score was recorded 259. China’s Wuhan is at number three with a particulate matter score of 198.
The Air Quality Index states that a particulate level between 151-200 is considered injurious to health, while a pollution level between 201-300 is considered extremely injurious to health.
Any level of pollution higher than 301 is recognized as “hazardous pollution”.